The Atlantic World

The Atlantic World 2024 The Columbian exchange I • The arrival of Europeans to the Americas in 1492 created a new world: 1. A tight link between the continents of the Atlantic basin: Europe, the Americas, and Africa. 2. Move of microbes, plants, and animals (the Columbian exchange). 3. Demographic changes (even before European settlement!). 4. Trade of goods (gold, silver, foodstuffs,...). 5. Deep economic, political, and cultural changes in all these continents. 2 Why Europeans? 3 4 5 The Columbian exchange II • Some consequences are surprising in their causes and effects: 1. The reforestation of much of North America (possibly triggering the Little Ice Age). 2. The creation of new Native American nations. 3. The transformation of the Great Plains by the introduction of the horse. 4. The appearance of new languages (e.g., Haitian Creole from the mix of French and African languages). 6 Map 2. The Early Modern Atlantic World. Based on D. W. Meinig, The Shaping of America, vol. 1, Atlantic America, 1492–1800 7 The Atlantic world, I • Thus, you can only understand Early America as a component of a larger, transnational Atlantic world. • Atlantic world existed, as a unit of analysis, from 1492 to mid-19th century, when the European colonial empires largely disappear from the Americas and the Atlantic world began to merge into a larger global world. • According to Bernard Bailyn, three main components: • Colonial era for the Western hemisphere. • Central role of slavery: Four times as many Africans are brought enslaved to the Americas than Europeans migrate from 1500 to 1800. • Pre-industrial world dominated by commerce, agricultural developments and extractive industries, as opposed to manufacturing. • Notice how all three components disappear by mid-19th century. 8 9 10 The Atlantic world, II • Also, importance of comparisons (i.e, Spanish vs. British Empires) for understanding different dynamics: economic, political, and social spheres. • Contingency of current U.S. frontiers: in colonial times, Charleston had a closer link with Barbados than with Florida. • We will mainly focus on British America and mainly forget about Spanish, French, Dutch, and Russian North America. • Why? • Complementary approaches: “vast Early America” and “Trans-Pacific world” (trade with China and India; recall the Boston Tea Party throws away tea from China brought by a company located in India). 11 12 13 14 Europeans in the Americas • The creation of the Atlantic world was led by Spain and Portugal. Why? • Followed by the Dutch (Martin Van Buren, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Delano Roosevelt). • The French and British were late comers to this world (Swedish, Danish, and other minor European powers as well, but at a much smaller scale). • Consequences: 1. Spain and Portugal get more productive areas. 2. French and British will have a nearly-200 years fight for North America. 3. However, with very different strategies: French will concentrate on furs and fish. 4. British will need to live with the geographical constraints of North America. 15 16 A new dynasty • Union of Crowns on March 24, 1603. • After the death of Elizabeth I of England without issue, James VI of Scotland also becomes James I of England and Ireland. • British Islands at the time: 1. England was a relatively peripheral nation within Europe, but comparatively rich and with an advanced legal system. 2. Scotland was poor and sparsely populated. 3. Ireland was a semi-colony with a large plantation of Presbyterians Lowland Scottish migrants in Ulster ⇒ Fynes Moryson (1566-1630) called Ireland “a famous island in the Virginian Sea.” 17 18 19 The Stuarts • James I inaugurates the Stuart dynasty. • Dynasty lasts until 1688, when James II leaves for exile, although the Jacobite dreams survive until the Battle of Culloden, on April 16, 1746. • Very different conceptions of politics and power. For example, James I is used to achieving political goals through personal relationships, while England has a tradition of formal legal relationships. • Nonetheless, James I is a highly educated king, with deep knowledge of his time’s culture. 20 21 The origins of British America • Although now it might be hard to fully appreciate, sharp tensions in Early America between English, Scottish Highlanders, and Ulster Scots. • There also non-trivial differences between South of England, the Midlands, and East Anglia (Oxford vs. Cambridge) and between mainstream Anglicans, Puritans, and Catholics. • After 1830s, also with (Catholic) Irish. • Wilbur Zelinsky: doctrine of first effective settlement (The Cultural Geography of the United States). 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 A turbulent century • James I’s vision for a new British state will lead to a momentous confrontation with the Parliament that will have radical consequences in the British colonies: 1. Where should sovereignty reside? 2. How should the (Reformed) Church be run? Congregational vs. Episcopal. James’ view: “No bishop, no king.” Possible appointment of (Anglican) bishops in British North America is hotly debated possibility. • Both questions had deep roots in the peculiarities of English history (mainly 1066 and all that, Magna Carta, Parliament, and a “peculiar” reformation). 33 34 35 A turbulent century • Conflicts: 1. Wars of the Three Kingdoms between 1639 and 1651. 2. Glorious Revolution of 1688. • Parliament will eventually come out of these struggles as victor. • Two main consequences for British North America: 1. Start of the colonial enterprise. 2. Unsolved question about sovereignty. 36 37 38 Early settlements • Advancing Empire: English Interests and Overseas Expansion, 1613-1688 by L. H. Roper. • A first, short-lived colonization attempt on Roanoke Island sponsored by Sir Walter Raleigh on 1584-1587. • James I grants two charts in 1606 to the London Company (aka as the Virginia Company of London) and Plymouth Company. • Why companies? • Jamestown settlement on the James River on May 4, 1607. • Virginia becomes a royal colony in 1624. • Plymouth Company soon fails. 39 40 41 42 Virginia, I • Early hopes to find gold or grow wine and silkworms failed. • Also, extremely high mortality rate among European settlers and tense relations with local Native Americans. • Colony is saved by the start of new varieties of tobacco cultivation in 1612 ⇒ the transition to a slavery plantation economy starts. • Also, move to individual land ownership. • Motives of Honor, Pleasure, and Profit ⇒ planters were rational economic agents that responded to market conditions. 43 44 45 46 47 Virginia, II • House of Burgesses established in 1619. First representative assembly in a European colony. • However, little interest in public education. William Berkeley, Governor of Virginia, 1670-71 But, I thank God, there are no free schools nor printing [in Virginia], and I hope we shall not have these hundred years; for learning has brought disobedience, and heresy, and sects into the world, and printing has divulged them, and libels against the best government. God keep us from both! • Bacon’s Rebellion of 1676. American Slavery, American Freedom: The Ordeal of Colonial Virginia by Edmund Morgan. 48 49 50 The other southern colonies • Maryland and the Carolinas follow a bit later. • Early connection of South Carolina with Barbados. English officials often talked about “Carolina in the West Indies.” • First, lumber, tar, and cattle, latter rice and indigo. • Georgia is a 18th century creation for English debtors. Originally without slavery, later reversed. • Central political-economic cleavage: tidewater vs. backcountry. • Important, for example, in the Revolutionary and Civil War. • That is why we have a state called West Virginia. 51 52 New England I • Plymouth Company: Popham Colony in Maine in 1607. Abandoned after 14 months. • Plymouth Colony settled in 1620. • Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1628. • Both colonies merge into the Province of Massachusetts in 1691. • New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Connecticut follow Plymouth Colony and the Massachusetts Bay Colony a few decades later. • “Great Migration” between 1630 and 1640. New arrivals dramatically slow down after 1640. Why? • Homogenous population (ethnically and in social terms). • Difficult relation with the Crown nearly from day one. In some sense, the less “English” part of British North America, especially during the first decades. 53 54 New England II • Very different environmental constraints: 1. Poor and rocky soil with low mountains and hills. 2. On the other hand, excellent fisheries and access to Caribbean Sea. 3. Colder winters and short growing season. • Consequences: 1. Lower mortality and higher life expectancy. 2. Concentrated villages with fee simple tenure individual fields and commons. 3. Smaller farms. 4. Early transition to other economic activities and trade with the plantation islands. • Dividing the Land: Early American Beginnings of Our Private Property Mosaic 55 56 57 58 Middle colonies • New York taken from the Dutch in 1664 as a result of the Second Anglo-Dutch War. It will keep much of its Dutch commercial orientation. • Also, in 1664, New Jersey and Delaware. • Province of Pennsylvania established in 1681 as a proprietary colony through a grant by Charles II to William Penn. • Profitable cash crops such as wheat and cattle based on the use of fertilizers and crop rotation. • Also, most ethnically diverse of early colonies. 59 60 61 62 Map 6. British America, 1763. 63 64